Vietnam Company Search Guide 2026: How to Verify a Vietnam Business

TL;DR. Vietnam’s official company registry is the National Business Registration Portal operated by the Ministry of Planning and Investment at dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn. Basic company status searches are free and require no account, but the interface is Vietnamese-only, no English option is available, and there is no public API. Foreign buyers can retrieve company name, enterprise code, registration date, and status using browser translation, but obtaining certified documents requires working through a local agent or a commercial data supplier.

What is the official Vietnam business registry?

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (Bộ Kế hoạch và Đầu tư) operates Vietnam’s central business registration database. The public-facing portal is the National Business Registration Portal (Cổng thông tin quốc gia về đăng ký doanh nghiệp), accessible at dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn.

The portal was established under the Law on Enterprises (Luật Doanh nghiệp) and its implementing decrees. The current Law on Enterprises (No. 59/2020/QH14) took effect in January 2021 and governs registration requirements for all Vietnamese-incorporated entities. Every registered business receives an Enterprise Code (Mã số doanh nghiệp), which is a 10- to 13-digit number also used as the tax identification number issued by the General Department of Taxation.

The Ministry delegates day-to-day registration processing to provincial Department of Planning and Investment (DPI) offices. The national portal aggregates all provincial registrations into a single searchable database.

What can you search?

The National Business Registration Portal supports searches by:

• Enterprise Code (Mã số doanh nghiệp), the primary identifier
• Business name (Vietnamese; partial name match is supported)
• Tax code (in most cases identical to the enterprise code)

Data available in the free public profile includes: registered Vietnamese name, enterprise code, entity type (limited liability company, joint-stock company, partnership, sole proprietorship, branch, representative office), registration date, registered address, business lines (activity codes), registered charter capital, legal representative name, and current status (active, suspended, dissolved, bankrupt).

Director and shareholder details beyond the legal representative are not displayed in the free public profile. Obtaining the full list of members/shareholders requires a notarized extract requested through the DPI office or a commercial data supplier.

For tax compliance screening, the General Department of Taxation portal (gdt.gov.vn) allows lookups of a company’s taxpayer status by enterprise code or tax code. This is a useful complement to the MPI registry for confirming whether a company is tax-registered and active.

How much does it cost?

Basic data from the national portal is free. Certified documents must be obtained from the provincial DPI office that holds the registration, either in person or via a licensed agent. Fees for official certified copies are set by government decree and are nominal (VND 20,000-50,000 per page), but agent and notarization fees add to the total cost.

VND/USD conversion used: approximately 25,000 VND = USD 1 (verify at point of use; the VND is managed within a crawling peg and rates vary).

Do you need a local account or ID?

No account or Vietnamese ID is required for the free public search at dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn. Any visitor can search by enterprise code or company name without registering.

CAPTCHA verification is present on the search function. It is standard image-based CAPTCHA and does not require a Vietnamese phone number or identity document.

Obtaining certified documents from the DPI requires either in-person attendance or engaging a licensed local agent. Remote notarized document requests from abroad are possible but require a power of attorney and notarization chain, which typically takes 2-4 weeks.

Is the website in English?

No. The National Business Registration Portal is Vietnamese-only. There is no English-language toggle, and all interface text, search labels, entity status descriptions, and results are in Vietnamese.

Browser-based translation tools handle the interface reasonably well for basic navigation. Key status terms to know: “Đang hoạt động” means active; “Tạm ngừng kinh doanh” means temporarily suspended; “Đã giải thể” means dissolved; “Đang làm thủ tục phá sản” means bankruptcy proceedings in progress.

Entity names are in Vietnamese by default. Foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) may have a foreign-language name filed alongside the Vietnamese name, but the registry display prioritizes the Vietnamese version.

What’s the turnaround time?

Free basic profile lookups return results instantly from the portal.

For certified documents from a provincial DPI office, the standard processing time under Decree 01/2021/ND-CP is 3 business days from receipt of a complete application. In practice, busy provincial offices (particularly in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi) may take 5-7 business days. Same-day service is not standard.

Commercial credit report delivery from suppliers such as FiinGroup typically takes 1-3 business days for standard reports, or same-day for pre-compiled company profiles in the supplier’s database.

Is there an API?

No public API is available for the National Business Registration Portal. The Ministry of Planning and Investment does not publish a documented endpoint for programmatic lookups.

Tax code lookups can be performed via the General Department of Taxation portal (gdt.gov.vn), which has a structured URL pattern for direct tax code queries, though this is not a documented API and terms of use apply.

Commercial suppliers such as FiinGroup and FiinRatings offer API access to their enriched Vietnam company databases for institutional clients.

What you legally cannot do

Vietnam’s Law on Enterprises and related data protection legislation (Decree 13/2023/ND-CP on personal data protection) impose the following restrictions:

• Bulk automated scraping of the national portal is prohibited under the portal’s terms of use
• Director and shareholder personal data (name, ID number, address) may only be used for the stated lawful purpose
• Republishing official enterprise registration certificates commercially requires authorization
• Using company data for unsolicited solicitation or spam violates Vietnamese consumer protection law

Vietnam’s personal data protection regime under Decree 13/2023/ND-CP entered into force in July 2023. Compliance buyers processing data on Vietnamese directors or beneficial owners must ensure their data processing has a documented legal basis.

Practical tips for foreign users

• Enterprise Code is the anchor identifier. The 10-digit enterprise code (mã số doanh nghiệp) also serves as the company’s tax code (mã số thuế). These two numbers are identical for most enterprises. The code appears on Vietnamese company invoices (hóa đơn GTGT), contracts, and official seals. It is the most reliable search key, more so than the company name.
• Multiple entity types coexist. LLC (Công ty TNHH), joint-stock company (Công ty cổ phần), partnership (Công ty hợp danh), and sole proprietorship (Doanh nghiệp tư nhân) are all registered here, alongside foreign-invested enterprises (FIE) and representative offices. Entity type affects disclosure obligations.
• Legal representative vs. full director list. The portal displays the legal representative (người đại diện theo pháp luật), who is the individual authorized to sign on behalf of the company. This may be one director, a chairman, or a CEO. Full director and member/shareholder lists require the certified extract.
• Suspended status is common. A company with “Tạm ngừng kinh doanh” status has notified the DPI of a temporary suspension, typically for 1-12 months. It is not dissolved but is not operating. For AML screening, treat this status as requiring additional due diligence.
• Cross-reference with GDT. A company appearing in the MPI registry but absent from the GDT taxpayer database may be delinquent on tax registration. The gdt.gov.vn portal is a useful second check.

Alternatives if you cannot access the registry directly

• Tax code lookup: the General Department of Taxation portal (gdt.gov.vn) provides free taxpayer status lookups by enterprise code, useful for rapid active/inactive checks.
• OpenCorporates: indexes some Vietnam MPI data but coverage is partial and lags the primary source. Useful for initial name checks; not for compliance-grade verification.

Local data suppliers

If you need a packaged report rather than a raw MPI portal extract, Vietnam has a small set of established providers:

• FiinGroup (fiingroup.vn). Vietnam’s leading financial data and business intelligence company, headquartered in Hanoi. FiinGroup’s FiinGate platform covers over 2 million Vietnamese enterprises with profile data, financial statements, ownership structures, and risk scoring. It serves over 1,000 institutional clients including banks, fund managers, and corporate compliance teams. API access is available for enterprise clients.
• FiinRatings (fiinratings.vn). Independent credit rating subsidiary of FiinGroup, licensed by the State Securities Commission. FiinRatings issues issuer and instrument ratings for Vietnamese companies and provides corporate credit assessments, sector analysis, and portfolio risk monitoring. It is the only CBI-authorized bond labeling verifier in Vietnam and partners with S&P Global Ratings. Use FiinRatings when you need a rated credit opinion rather than a raw data pull.

Use the National Business Registration Portal for the official registered status and enterprise code confirmation. Use FiinGroup when you need financial history, ownership data, or risk scoring layered on top of the registration record.

FAQ

Can a foreign company access Vietnam’s business registry directly?

Yes. The National Business Registration Portal at dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn allows anyone to search and view basic company profiles without registration or a Vietnamese ID. The main barrier is the Vietnamese-only interface. Browser translation tools enable foreign users to navigate the search and interpret results. For certified documents, a local agent or DPI office visit is required.

What is the enterprise code in Vietnam?

The enterprise code (Mã số doanh nghiệp) is a 10- to 13-digit number assigned by the DPI at the time of incorporation. It also serves as the company’s tax identification number (mã số thuế). It appears on the enterprise registration certificate, company chops (seals), invoices, and official correspondence. It is the primary identifier for all registry and tax lookups.

What entity types are registered on the Vietnamese national portal?

The portal covers: limited liability companies (one-member and multi-member LLC), joint-stock companies, partnerships, sole proprietorships, business households, and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs). FIEs include wholly foreign-owned enterprises, joint ventures, and representative offices.

Does Vietnam have a public beneficial ownership (UBO) registry?

Vietnam does not operate a public beneficial ownership registry as of May 2026. The Law on Anti-Money Laundering (No. 14/2022/QH15, effective March 2023) requires reporting entities to collect and verify beneficial ownership information, and Vietnam has submitted an action plan to FATF addressing transparency gaps. However, a centralized publicly searchable UBO database does not yet exist. Shareholders of joint-stock companies are recorded in the company’s internal shareholder register, not in a public portal.

Is Vietnam on the FATF grey list?

Vietnam was added to the FATF grey list (Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring) in June 2023 due to deficiencies in AML/CFT implementation, including gaps in beneficial ownership transparency and reporting entity compliance. As of May 2026, Vietnam is working through its FATF action plan. Compliance buyers dealing with Vietnamese counterparties should apply enhanced due diligence consistent with FATF’s guidance on grey-listed jurisdictions.

How current is data in the Vietnamese registry?

Registration events (new companies, name changes, address changes, dissolution, suspension) are processed by provincial DPI offices, typically within 3-5 business days of a complete filing. The national portal reflects the last filed state. The portal does not display financial statement data; financial information from annual filings is available through commercial suppliers such as FiinGroup.

What is the difference between the MPI portal and the GDT portal?

The Ministry of Planning and Investment portal (dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn) is the company registration database: it holds the legal entity record, enterprise code, registered capital, and corporate officers. The General Department of Taxation portal (gdt.gov.vn) covers tax registration status and is the place to confirm whether a company is tax-compliant and active. A thorough compliance check uses both portals, as a company can be registered with MPI but delinquent with GDT.

Last verified: May 2026. Source: Ministry of Planning and Investment via dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn; General Department of Taxation via gdt.gov.vn. FATF reference: fatf-gafi.org.